from the face of my 'Old Woman,'* I hope he will upon second thoughts, acquit me of an absolute dearth of resources and want of versatility in the direction of my studies." This last extract was written by Hazlitt about two years before his death. I will copy one more of these personal disclosures of feeling, and then close: it was written in 1827: "It seems, in truth, a hard case to have all the world against us, and to require uncommon fortitude (not to say presumption) to stand out single against such a host. The bare suggestion must 'give us pause,' and has no doubt overturned many an honest conviction. The opinion of the world, (as it pompously entitles itself,) if it means any thing more than a set of local and party prejudices, with which only our interest, not truth, is concerned, is a shadow, a bugbear, and a contradiction in terms. Having all the world against us, is a phrase without a meaning; for in those points in which all the world agree, no one differs from the world. If all the world were of the same way of thinking, and always kept in the same mind, it would certainly be a little staggering to have them against you. But however widely and angrily they may differ from you, they differ quite as much from one another, and even from themselves. What is gospel at one moment, is heresy the next. Different countries and climates have different notions of things. When you are put on your trial, therefore, for impugning the public opinion, you may subpoena this great body against itself. For example: I have been turtled for somewhere calling Tom Paine a great writer, and no doubt his reputation at present 'does somewhat smack;' yet in 1792 he was so great, or so popular an author, and so much read and admired by numbers who would not now mention his name, that the Government was obliged to suspend the Constitution, and to go to war to counteract the effects of his popularity. His extreme popularity was then the cause (by a common and vulgar reaction) of his extreme obnoxiousness. If the opinion of the world then contradicts itself, why may not I contradict it, or choose at what time and to what extent I will agree with it? I have been accused of abusing dissenters, and saying that sectaries, in general, are dry and suspicious; and I believe that all the world will say the same thing except themselves. I have said that the Church people are proud and overbearing, which has given them umbrage, though in this I have all the sectaries on my side. I have laughed at the Methodists, and for this I have been accused of glancing at religion; yet who but a Methodist does not laugh at the Methodists as well as myself? But I also laugh at those who laugh at them. I have pointed out by turns the weak sides and foibles of different sects and parties, and they themselves maintain that they respectively are perfect and infallible; and this is called having all the world against me. I have inveighed all my life against the insolence of the * Hazlitt's first attempt at painting. See his "Essay on the Pleasure of Painting." Tories, and for this I have the authority of both Whigs and Radicals; but then I have occasionally spoken against the indecision of the Whigs, and the extravagance of the Radicals, though two out of the three regularly agree with and thus have brought all three on my back, all I say of the third party. Poets do not approve of what I have said of their turning prose-writers; nor do the politicians approve of my tolerating the fooleries of the fanciful tribe at all: so they make common cause to damn me between them. People never excuse the drawback from themselves, nor the concessions to an adversary: such is the justice and candor of mankind! Mr. Wordsworth is not satisfied with the praise I have heaped upon himself, and still less, that I have allowed Mr. Moore to be a poet at all. I do not think I have ever set my face against the popular idols of the day; I have been among the foremost in crying up Mrs. Siddons, Kean, Sir Walter Scott, Madame Pasta, and others; and as to the great names of former times, my admiration has been lavish, and sometimes almost mawkish. I have dissented, it is true, in one or two instances; but that only shows that I judge for myself, not that I make a point of contradicting the general taste. I have been more to blame in trying to push certain lustrious Obscure into notice ;-they have not forgiven the obligation, nor the world the tacit reproach. As to my personalities, they might quite as well be termed impersonalities. I am so intent on the abstact and its elucidation, that I regard every thing else of very subordinate consequence: my friends, I conceive, will not refuse to contribute to so laudable an undertaking, and my enemies must! I have found fault with the French, I have found fault with the English; and pray, do they not find great, mutual, and just fault with one another? It may seem a great piece of arrogance in any one, to set up his individual and private judgment against that of ten millions of people; but cross the channel, and you will have thirty milions on your side. Even should the thirty millions come over to the opinions of the ten, (a thing that may happen to-morrow,) still one need not despair. I remember my old friend Peter Finnerty laughing very heartily at something I had written about the Scotch, but it was followed up by a sketch of the Irish, on which he closed the book, looked grave, and said he disapproved entirely of all national reflections. Thus you have all the world on your side, except the party concerned. What any set of people think or say of themselves is hardly a rule for others; yet, if you do not attach yourself to some one set of people and principles, and stick to them through thick and thin, instead of giving your opinion fairly and fully all round, you must expect to have all the world against you, for no other reason than because you express sincerely, and for their good, not only what they say of others, but what is said of themselves, which they would fain keep a profound secret, and prevent the divulging of under the severest pains and penalties. When I told Jeffrey that I had composed a work in which I had 'in some sort handled' about a score of leading characters, he said, 'Then you will have one man against you, and the remaining nineteen for you. I have not found it so. In fact, these persons would agree pretty nearly to all that I say, and allow that, in nineteen points out of twenty, I am right; but the twentieth, that relates to some imperfection of their own, weighs down all the rest, and produces an unanimous verdict against the author. There is but one thing in which the world agree, a certain bigoted blindness, and conventional hypocrisy, without which, according to Mandeville, (that is, if they really spoke what they thought and knew of one another,) they would fall to cutting each other's throats immediately." Hazlitt passed many happy hours at Winterslow. Food, warmth, sleep and books were all he wished for. He watched the robin red-breast picking up the crumbs at the door, or listened to the notes of the thrush, startling the ear of winter. He quaffed libations of tea in the morning, viewed the clouds float slowly by, walked on the smooth greensward by the woodside, sauntering along without book or companion. He thought of the past, or struck out some new train of thought; the shining trunks and branches of the birch trees attracted his attention; or hearing the gale sweeping through the wood, he would fancy he heard the cry of hounds, and the fearful group issuing from it, as in the story of Theodore and Honoria, and return home and read Dryden's couplets describing them, -a stream of sound,-or mourn over the downfall of Napoleon, his great idol : "Fall'n was Glenarty's stately tree! Oh, ne'er to see Lord Ronald more !" Or he gazed around the room on some fine prints from Wilson and Claude, or recalled the first time he read Chaucer's "Flower and Leaf," that ever fresh and delightful production; and the scene, the cool, vernal landscape again appeared before him apparelled in celestial light, and the notes of the nightingale again sounded in his ear. With Charles Lamb and his sister, he would walk out in the evenings, and view the Claude Lorraine skies, azure, purple and gold, and gather mushrooms to throw into their hashed mutton at supper. Quiet, cheering, happy hours they were. HAYTI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Ir is an unfortunate, though perhaps | never have been effected had the question necessary circumstance, resulting from the been presented on its real merits, and the extreme humanitarian notions somewhat appeal been made to the good practical prevalent at the present day in our country, sense, the wholesome moral sentiment, and that the moment any political subject is manly patriotism of the people. Even did agitated which bears directly or indirectly the evil stop at the point of misled public on the negro question, and consequently sentiment and perverted sympathy, the efappeals especially to the "moral sense" of fect, in matters relating to our foreign polithe nation, that convenient hobby on which cy, might not perhaps be very serious. so many, resorting to it by design, or im- But in a popular government like ours, pelled by an inherent proclivity, ride to where public sentiment and its organ the positions of influence and power, the real press very properly influence its action in a merits of the question in point are apt to be very great degree, the evil cannot stop at either wholly overlooked, or soon lost sight that point. And hence, though it must of; while false issues, such as will best sub- awaken our regret, it cannot excite our serve the proposed end, are raised, to which wonder, that the action of the Government the public attention is diverted by all the on questions where public sentiment is most arts of sophistry and ingenuity known to liable to be swayed by sympathy or prejuthose who are accustomed to make the sym-dice, should sometimes be vacillating and pathies and prejudices of the people subservient to their views and purposes. Thus, frequently a decision is obtained, based on matters collateral or wholly irrelevant, but having the same practical result as a verdict on the legitimate issue, which could hesitating-wanting in that prompt, energetic straightforwardness which results from earnestness of purpose, guided by liberal and enlarged views of national duty and obligation. We deem these remarks not irrelevant to the subject of this article, particularly in its relation to the Dominican Republic. tice, and republican liberty. And, without assuming to be the especial guardians of the Dominican Republic or its interests, we conceive that there is a propriety in our coming forward to take part in the discus ual capacity, the first, we believe, to present an account of that new State to the American public, which we did in the columns of one of the daily journals, more than three years ago; and having subsequently resumed the topic in the pages of this Review.* During the interval which has since elapsed, we have watched, with what attention we could, from a far-off position,one equally distant from our own country and the island people whose fortunes and destiny had once awakened our sympathy while among them, the course of events affecting the Dominican Republic. We approach this discussion then, we confess, with some small degree of feeling, not a little heightened, it may be, by the fact that, owing to the form of our publication, we have been tied down to a month's silence, while this discussion has been carried on in the manner we have noticed. The late failure in the attempt at mediation by the agents of the three powers, Great Britain, France and the United States, between the Haytians and Dominicans-orsion; having been, to speak in our individto speak more properly, in the attempt by those powers to induce his soi-disant Majesty of Hayti to cease his hostilities towards the Dominicans-and the discussion of the question at issue between them by the daily press, are attracting to it a no small degree of public attention at the present time. And the issues legitimately involved in the question, as well as some irrelevant ones which are sought to be connected with it, are a sufficient guaranty that it will continue, until its final adjustment, to engage, in an intenser degree than ever, the attention of the American people. By a portion of the press, whose sympathies for the Haytian cause have apparently either blinded their judgment or overcome their scrupulous regard for truth and the claims of justice, this question has been stu- | diously misrepresented, or its merits at least essentially perverted. By raising the alarm cries of "Slavery extension," "More annexation of slave territory," and others of a similar kind, in connection with this subject, popular prejudice is sought to be aroused, to the injury of the Dominican cause, on which an unfavorable prejudgment by the public is thus attempted to be gained, by appealing to passion and sectional prejudices, under the plausible cloak of philanthropy, on issues wholly irrelevant in fact, but none the less, for that reason, adapted to the apparent purpose in view. A preliminary word further. We modestly believe ourselves to possess as large a share of rational philanthropy, even on the negro question, as those who make much more ostentatious pretensions to it. At the same time, we frankly confess that in any case where the merits of a controversy, as between the white and black races, were equi-balanced, our sympathies-and we are so unsophisticated as to suppose them very natural-w uld incline us to side with our own blood and color. A fortiori are we disposed so to do, where the balance in the scale of right and justice is decidedly in favor of the white race, and it, moreover, is the weaker party-the party not merely destined, if defeated, to lose its inherited civil and political rights, but doomed to the fate we have already indicated. And we We do not wish to speak harshly, nor do we intend to be unjust; but knowing, as we well do, that this course, pursued with a perseverance worthy of a better cause, is directly if not designedly calculated to shut out from the republican sympathies of the American nation a feeble, but brave and resolute people, who are battling manfully for the maintenance of their republican lib-confess ourselves deficient in that degree of erties against the unfounded claims of a crushing and cruel despotism,-nay, struggling to preserve themselves from absolute extermination in a war of races, unrelentingly waged against them on account of their white blood,-we feel compelled to step forward in vindication of their cause, which is identified with that of truth, jus astuteness requisite to discover the reasons and motives, on the supposition that they are good and proper, which can induce another, being a white man, to decide differently between the two parties in a case of this kind. For the question ultimately re *March and April Nos., 1849. by the treaty of Paris. From that time onward, the colony was ruled by Spanish royal governors until the year 1821, when the inhabitants of the capital, Santo Domingo city, revolted against the royal authority, deposed the Governor, and sent him out of the country. solves itself into this, of Dominican independence on the one hand, or the extermination of the white race on the other; and it matters little whether this extermination be effected by a single bloody tragedy, like that by which the entire French colony in Hayti proper was swept off near the close of the last century, or-which would be With this expulsion ended the actual more likely to be the course pursued now possession of Spain, the only European when the civilized world is watching the power that had the shadow of a claim to proceedings of the black power-by the the Dominican territory. And it is in slower but no less sure means of political point to remark, that this claim, which was proscription under color of law. never seriously re-asserted, has been virtualWith these preliminary remarks, we pro-ly relinquished by the fact that that Govceed to execute the purpose we have in view in this article: First, to discuss the question at issue between Hayti and the Dominican Republic, having reference to the claims of the former to a political supremacy over the latter; and second, after a On the overthrow of the Spanish royal brief review of the past action of our Gov-authority, the inhabitants established a proernment in the matter, to consider the at-visional government and hoisted the Colomtitude which, in the present circumstances and state of the case, duty and policy require it to assume towards those States, especially the Dominican Republic. As all our readers have not at hand our former numbers, before alluded to, it is necessary to a proper understanding of the subject to reiterate briefly a few facts and circumstances.* The Dominican territory is identical in its limits with the ancient Spanish part of the island of St. Domingo, being the eastern portion, and embracing two thirds of its entire area; while Hayti proper includes the remaining, or western portion-the territory of the old French colony. The revolt of the blacks in the latter, near the close of the last century, not having extended to the former, then under the government of the Spanish Crown, the relations of master and slave remained, as they always had been, undisturbed in the Spanish colony after the blacks in the west had established their so-called republics, of which in the beginning there were two. France, by treaty of cession with Spain obtained and held possession of the Spanish portion from the year 1795 or '96 to 1809, in which latter year the French were expelled by the native inhabitants. This repossession by the Spanish colonists was afterwards confirmed to the Spanish Crown * See March No., 1849, p. 238, et seq. ernment has within the last few years once promised to recognize the Dominican independence, an act which was only left incomplete in form, at the time, by a crisis in the Spanish cabinet.* bian flag, wishing to unite themselves to that South American Republic. But that State either not having time, or wanting the inclination to consummate this union, and scenes of disorder and confusion meanwhile occurring to embarass the provisional government, a faction of the colored population communicated to Boyer, who had then recently united under his sway both the black republics in the west, their wish that he would come and take possession of the east also. The Haytian chief, at the head of a numerous and tolerably well-disciplined army, was, we believe, at the time on his march towards the Dominican capital, for the purpose of taking possession of it by force, which, with his appointments and in the state of things existing there at the time, he would have found no great difficulty in doing. Under these circumstances, on his presenting himself with his army before the gates of the capital, they were opened to him; but under the stipulation that the inhabitants should be left in the enjoyment of their ancient rights, laws, usages and customs. Such was the origin of the Dominican union with Hayti in 1822. Let us now examine how these stipulations were observed by the Haytian chief. The moment Boyer found himself securely planted within the city gates, and in full possession of the fortress and walls that * See April No., 1849, p. 382-note. commanded the town and its approaches, he proclaimed the universal emancipation of the slaves, against the remonstrances of the Dominicans, who reminded him of his pledges, and without making any stipulations or provisions for indemnification to their late owners. We admit that the conduct of Boyer, being a black man and the ruler of a people who had recently wrested from their masters the boon of freedom, was, in this particular, all very natural. Nay, we will even go so far, for the sake of the argument solely, as to admit that his course, though rigorously in violation of legal rights and of solemn faith pledged to respect this right among others, (which inference can be evaded by no sophistry or ingenuity,) was yet excusable as regarded him and his position. Still, in the view of the Dominicans, whose rights of property enjoyed through successive generations were thus trampled under foot, this circumstance in regard to Boyer and his position could afford no plea in extenuation of the act, coupled with the manner of it; nor the slightest valid reason for their submission to a political supremacy yielded on conditions so violated, any longer than while compelled by necessity to submit. Considering the mild form in which slavery existed at this time in Spanish St. Domingo, (we speak in contradistinction to its form in the French portion, before the revolt of the blacks there,) and some other circumstances, it is not improbable that the Dominicans would have voluntarily acquiesced in the emancipation, had an adequate indemnity been given for the loss of this class of their property. But none was ever offered; so that even the act of emancipation, performed in the manner it was, stands glaringly out as one of treachery and bad faith. Nor can the course pursued on this subject in after years, by the Dominican revolutionists, have the retro-active effect of mitigating this verdict. For then the lapse of nearly a quarter of a century had materially changed the position of affairs in regard to the relations of the races induced by this act; and besides, to put the matter on the ground on which the Congress that framed the Dominican Constitution of 1844 placed it, all classes, the whites, the people of color, (that is, the races of the mixed blood,) and the blacks, had indiscriminately united in the successful efforts to regain their country's liber ties from the Haytians; and hence it was but just that all, without distinction of color, should be placed on a footing of political equality, as was done by that instrument.* But the terms of the capitulation of the capital-the possession of which was the consummation of the annexation, inasmuch as the possession of that walled town was virtually the acquisition of the whole country-were not kept in other material respects. For soon after the annexation there followed in quick succession a series of confiscations, with or without color of law: First, of some of the possessions of the Dominican Church, the property of the religious corporations; among the effects of which illegal and unjust measure may be mentioned the ruin of the ancient University of Santo Domingo, an institution of learning which had through a long series of years sent forth numbers of men who, by their learning and talents, adorned, in Church or State, that and the adjacent Spanish countries. Second, the confiscation of the property of individuals. This was effected in several ways. First, indirectly and on a large scale, by a system of policy in flagrant violation of the terms of this compulsory annexation. To have applied directly to real estate in the Dominican territory the principle of the Haytian Constitution, which incapacitated whites from holding such property, would have been too openly outrageous an act of perfidy even for the unscrupulous but cunning and shrewd Boyer. He therefore proceeded indirectly to accomplish to a great extent the same end. We pass lightly over the fact of his requiring the Dominican landholders to naturalize themselves as Haytians as a condition of their continuing to reside in the country as proprietors, though it operated as a confiscation of their property in the case of the many who preferred banishment to the abjuration of their nationality; for the privilege which was allowed them of selling their estates amounted to nothing, inasmuch as the Haytian law excluding European immigration into the island, deprived those who might wish to avail themselves of this poor boon and abandon their country, of their only chance of finding purchasers; the people of the country having already much more land than they could cultivate or make See the analysis of this Constitution in the March No., 1849, of this Review. 1 |